Heavily abused Dysons

[matt8808]

Let me tell you a story, a story of two poor DC07's.

One of them receives commercial use and the other resembles a builders vacuum.

Everybody knows of Dyson machines that have been nothing but trouble - people saying "oh I had one and it kept breaking it was rubbish", so lets see machines from the opposite end of that scale - SOLDIER DYSONS!!!


To set this story up somewhat, firstly I'll explain how we got here.

For years I've been maintaining the vacuum cleaners of the church on our village green - I also help out around the place with cleaning and odd handy jobs when I have the time. Not that I'm religious in any way shape or form, I just enjoy doing something for nothing and helping out when I can.

When I first started there they had a DC01.
This machine was TERRIBLE for what they were using it for. It needed new filters every week or so and EVERY THREE MONTHS would need new wheels, brush roll and base plate!! It also went through a few cables and power switches too.

Shortly after I started helping out I sold them a nearly new DC04 All Floors for something silly like £30.
The lady who is responsible for the regular cleaning was over the moon as she didn't have to constantly buy replacement parts any more.

This machine lasted around 4 - 5 years.

It never gave any real problems until somebody managed to destroy the sole plate and strip the brush roll of its bristles - by this point given the wear the machine had on it I advised it wasn't worth spending the money on and they bought a new machine.

This brings us to today. Meet the DC07's.

The purple Animal machine belongs to the church and is their main vacuum cleaner.

The Yellow Origin machine is mine - I take it to the church on the occasions I go to give the place a more thorough clean as it performs better on the thick wool carpet.

We'll start with the churches machine firstly.....

 

[matt8808]

So this is the churches machine. Its around 6 years old now.

Never had any real issues with it.

At 4.5 years old it accidentally went around 8 months without a filter wash (I thought they had been doing it - they hadn't)

I try to make time to go and wash the filter every month or so now.

Everybody at the church was under the impression that magical pixies came to do it during the night.

So at 4.5 years the motor went pop because of this.

I brought the machine home and rang Dyson for a warranty repair.
Thankfully the repair man that covers this area for Dyson is a decent bloke and turned a blind eye to the fact this machine has clearly been used for more than domestic use.

The machine got a new motor, new HEPA filter and a new clutch as the belts were slipping badly.

I also had to replace the sole plate last year as the old one had worn away

 

[matt8808]

It has been dropped down the flight of stone stairs that lead to the choir vestry - hence the stress marks in the plastic on the cyclone assembly - nothing actually broke on the machine!!

 

[matt8808]

The plastic on the brush housing is showing wear from constantly pivoting on the uneven floor surfaces

 

[matt8808]

The current sole plate is holding up well - its only been on around a year

 

[matt8808]

Edge cleaning bristles are long gone though!

 

[matt8808]

The filter was pretty clean when I went today (for their machine anyway)- I swapped it over for a clean one though and brought the one from the machine home to wash

 

[matt8808]

I also cleaned the brush roll down today. Again this is pretty clean for their machine - they really do manage to block it up at times!!

 

[matt8808]

So that's their DC07 - HEAVILY used but it soldiers on without any complaint.

But they need a spare machine in case the DC07 was to break between weddings or something....

This is that spare machine! Their original DC01 is long gone - but I gave them this for emergencies

 

[matt8808]

This is the job the DC07 does.... takes a good few hours to vacuum properly and is done on a regular basis - after each wedding and funeral ect

 

[matt8808]

There is a lot of rough stone flooring and also really old wooden floor boards between the pews and things... the Dyson is used on everything. The stone does eventually wear the underside of the machine away - hence its needed a new sole plate in the time they've had it

 

[matt8808]

And now for my DC07 Origin


This machine was an utter bargain.

In my last job I was doing some contract work at a major electrical retailer - this was found at the back of their stock room and the handle was damaged.

They sold it to me for £9.97 due to it being an outdated model.

So for less than £10 I got a Dyson with the full 5 year Dyson warranty. I took it home, registered it, told them about the handle and they sent me a new one in the post!

It has been used purely for the cars, DIY jobs, building work and I take it to the church with me too. I bought it with jobs like this in mind...

Its around 2.5 years old now and the only thing I've needed to claim for on the warranty, other than a handle when I first got it, is a new hose.

Its cleaned up water, wet plaster, spilt paint, I've knocked internal walls down and vacuumed up the rubble with it, its had HUGE amounts of plaster dust up it, and most recently we've had a new roof put on the house so it's been used to vacuum up all the old bits of rubble and tiles from in the loft and also the soot from inside the chimneys as our house used to have coal fires....

I've had to wash the post motor filter a few times - due to the nature of what it gets used for the pre motor filter gets so clogged at times that the dust and dirt start getting around the filter and eventually clog the post motor filter too. I've also extended the cable to make life easier.

The motor sounds like hell now due to the amount of plaster dust and things that have been through it and when it is cold it sounds a bit like a cat being slowly fed into a blender - but the fact is that even with extreme abuse it still works!

If it does break I'm cheeky enough to try and claim for it under the warranty haha I'd have to clean it down a bit before letting the Dyson man see it though!

As you can see inside the hose is black from all the soot its had up it recently

 

[matt8808]

This is CLEAN for the filter on my machine - given the jobs it gets used for it is impossible to keep the filter clean - so it gets a wash when the suction has dropped and it starts moving the dirt around rather than sucking it up

 

[matt8808]

Handle is still showing evidence of the paint and plaster its sucked up...

 

[matt8808]

Brush roll is holding up well although the sole plate is starting to look sorry for itself

 

[matt8808]

Bottom of the motor housing is scuffed badly from it being regularly used outside for the cars

 

[matt8808]

And here it is working away hard in our loft after the new roof. When I'm not abusing it its living in our garden shed.

Sadly I don't think the newer style ball machines would put up with the amount of use / abuse these two have had - although I'd like somebody to prove me wrong!

 

[thekirbylover]

dyson's being used commercially

I used to use a dc33 for my mothers work, she works at a children's after school club so as you could imagine the corridor where the kids would play was not a pretty sight by he end of the night, but for about 2 years the dc33 was used everyday and didn't encounter any issue, I still have that dc33 but it never gets used now as I swapped it for my henry.

Another example I can think of was a dc14 was being used in my parents friends 3 story largish house with 3 men, 6 dogs and 7 cats, used everyday for nearly 8 years and didn't have any problems until it burned out in the beginning of this year, its filter only ever saw 1 wash so its quite a miracle really.
Thats the thing which annoys me with not just dyson but allot of brands is that they dont advertise any of the mantience needed for there machines.

 

[parwaz786]

OMG I LOVE THIS THREAD! THANK YOU!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My house- 3 story terraced house with multi flooring with different types of carpet thicknesses and textures along with different types of hand floors.
The Dysons we have are Dyson DC01 Destijl
DC04 Lime and gren
DC04 Absolute+
Dyson DC07 Allergy
Dyson DC07 Standard 2001
The best Dyson was our DC14 which was very durable and the DC07 animal we had was too. the DC25 Animal we had is gone unfortunately

Anyways, We have in the house: 1 baby/toddler, 3 children, 1 teenager, 8 adults and I think that's it.
The amount of times we vacuum a day is like... countless!
The kids make mess all the time, and the baby likes to put things in his mouth as he crawls around and loves to chew things and loves eating!

We had a Dyson DC08 Origin which has been used for plaster for approx 4 months. This was in our other property we were fixing up. The Dyson was lefty outside in the snow, dropped down the stairs (cracked handle) the motor still worked and the filter just got tapped out. I actually got annoyed by this so I took the filter out and vacuumed the plaster and sawdust. The motor actually got rusty! and it had bad bearings and was stinky. The motor miraculously worked though

My neighbour LOVED Vax. They have been using a 6131 for years. That broke. They got a bagless vax which broke quickly, so another 6131. This got used till the homeowner decided to use that in the factory he works in and get a house renovation. Also a new vacuum was bought
The vax vacuum was one of those pro multi functional wash and vac simplified vaxes with those chunky clips on the sides
This was a terrible vac. It was quiet, yes but it didnt clean well. They used it like this for about a year or 2

They borrowed my Mum's DC04 lime and returned it like half an hour later.
The DC04 got 1/3 of a bin full from just the upstairs. - Dyson power!

They eventually got a DC33 multi floor which they love. it had 1 blown motor but they still love it, and they empty it every 3 days. It picks up so much grit its unbelieveable.